MassHealth Estate Recovery notice

[Montecfo]

+1

Not sure what the problem is. OP is getting free health care, that he/she (apparently) could afford to buy, but chooses not to. When his/her time is up the state is just saying "Oh, by the way, if you have any money left, we want ours back before anyone else gets it". Seems fair to me.

Me too.

 

[youbet]

With elderly Medicaid you need to spend down all assets to a very small amount before you can qualify for it. So it isn't like people are hiding stuff, except for estate planning, and that needs to be done 5 years in advance.

Yes it is like "people are hiding stuff." Law firms in our area are advertising heavily about their skills at helping people do so. The five year "look back" rule helps control these dishonest activities, but more needs to be done.

 

[pb4uski]

If they changed the look back to 15 or 20 years that would probably nip it in the bud.

 

[jim584672]

What one man calls "dishonest", another man calls "prudent financial planning". Using the letter of the law is not dishonest in my book. That is as far as I want to go to avoid a Porky appearance.

 

[CardsFan]

What one man calls "dishonest", another man calls "prudent financial planning". Using the letter of the law is not dishonest in my book. That is as far as I want to go to avoid a Porky appearance.

I don't think anyone said it was dishonest (at least I did not), but it is a bit disingenuous to then complain that the system actually has a way to reclaim the cost of health care, after death, from those that actually had the resources to pay when alive.

 

[cat4ever]

automatically signed up for medicaid

This is just hitting me and it is very easy to miss so thought I'd pop it to the top again. I'm in Missouri and they can use asset recovery for non long term care costs, including comitant (or whatever that word was) costs.

Also, I don't think anyone is complaining about the recapture or being disingenuous, they just want to understand it and make it part of their decision making. From what I've seen I think I'll be going for the subsidized ACA and avoid the recapture possibilities.

What I do find disingenuous though is how I got signed up for medicaid in the first place. I went to the ACA site to try to sign up for a plan after my COBRA ran out. The site wouldn't let me sign up and said something about needing to check with Missouri first to see if I qualified for medicaid. Figuring I wouldn't qualify, and that this was the only way I'd get an ACA plan I said ok, go ahead and check. Then two months later I get a mailing saying I was on Medicaid, just like that. And no mention anywhere of the estate recovery angle, unless it was somewhere in the fine print. This should be front and center for anyone BEFORE they are signed up for medicaid.

 

[jim584672]

Are you sure they recover for MAGI Medicaid? I would call them and ask, I can't find the answer online.

 

[cat4ever]

I'm not sure what you mean by "recover for MAGI" but I was looking at this:

https://www.medicareresources.org/states/missouri-guide-content/#estate

When Medicaid coverage was administered by a Managed Care Organization (MCO) (ie, a private insurer with which the state contracts to administer Medicaid benefits), the state will attempt to recover what it paid the MCO. That means the estate recovery amount could differ from the actual cost of Medicaid services received.

 

[jim584672]

I'm not sure what you mean by "recover for MAGI" but I was looking at this:

https://www.medicareresources.org/states/missouri-guide-content/#estate

When Medicaid coverage was administered by a Managed Care Organization (MCO) (ie, a private insurer with which the state contracts to administer Medicaid benefits), the state will attempt to recover what it paid the MCO. That means the estate recovery amount could differ from the actual cost of Medicaid services received.

MAGI is expansion Medicaid. I would not trust your link as it isn't a .gov link.

This page has a number to call on the bottom about estate recovery questions. https://dss.mo.gov/mhd/general/pages/estate-recovery.htm

 

[cat4ever]

MAGI is expansion Medicaid. I would not trust your link as it isn't a .gov link.

This page has a number to call on the bottom about estate recovery questions. https://dss.mo.gov/mhd/general/pages/estate-recovery.htm

No, but it includes links to government documents to back up its claims:

https://dssmanuals.mo.gov/wp-content/themes/mogovwp_dssmanuals/public/memos/memos_13/im42_13.html

https://dss.mo.gov/mhd/general/pages/estate-recovery.htm

The first link includes:
"Under Estate Recovery, the state can file a claim against the estate of a deceased MO HealthNet recipient. The recipient must have received:
...
any kind of MO HealthNet coverage at any time after he or she turned age 55."

However I think a phone call would be prudent as I never trust my interpretation of these types of documents.

 

[jim584672]

MAGI (expansion) and ABD (aged, blind, disabled) are two different methods. That is why to take a document from 2013 that is for ABD it may not apply to MAGI. They can't place a lien with MAGI, but they can with ABD. MAGI has no resource limit and no requirement to get under a certain limit or have a "look back". The Federal law doesn't require a state to recover non nursing home expenses, but a state can do everything if they want to.

 

[ivinsfan]

This is just hitting me and it is very easy to miss so thought I'd pop it to the top again. I'm in Missouri and they can use asset recovery for non long term care costs, including comitant (or whatever that word was) costs.

Also, I don't think anyone is complaining about the recapture or being disingenuous, they just want to understand it and make it part of their decision making. From what I've seen I think I'll be going for the subsidized ACA and avoid the recapture possibilities.

What I do find disingenuous though is how I got signed up for medicaid in the first place. I went to the ACA site to try to sign up for a plan after my COBRA ran out. The site wouldn't let me sign up and said something about needing to check with Missouri first to see if I qualified for medicaid. Figuring I wouldn't qualify, and that this was the only way I'd get an ACA plan I said ok, go ahead and check. Then two months later I get a mailing saying I was on Medicaid, just like that. And no mention anywhere of the estate recovery angle, unless it was somewhere in the fine print. This should be front and center for anyone BEFORE they are signed up for medicaid.

Just up your income if you can for 23 and go on regular ACA...

 

[jim584672]

As long as the Public Health Emergency is active you are locked in. Looks like through January 2023. Then they will redetermine everyone, but that will take some time.